Digital heads from globally recognised brands DBS Bank, StarHub and Discovery Networks Asia Pacific sat down with Adobe’s APAC strategy leads at the recent Adobe Experience Forum to share anecdotes on their digital transformation journey, and its impact on their business and customer experience.

The world’s best digital bank

DBS Bank in Singapore has been named the ‘world’s best digital bank’ by Euro Money in 2016. Pearlyn Phau, managing director and deputy group head for consumer banking and wealth management, says the bank’s success is founded on its “pervasive embrace of digital” across all aspects of its operations. This means breaking down silos and allowing technology to aid productivity business wide.

Phau admits operating in a digital landscape can be a challenge, and that adapting the business mindset to a digital one was key in moving the bank forward.

“In the digital world, you cannot use traditional metrics,” she says, adding that partnerships with companies such as Adobe, have helped DBS track its digital success.

“Tools that help us to analyse and synthesise data to push out contextual offers are becoming extremely important and critical in our journey,” she explains.

Happy customer, happy company

Howie Lau, CMO of Singaporean telco StarHub, says that while competition and a desire to capture customer attention drove the company to innovate, it’s customer experience that is at the centre of the company’s ongoing transformation.

“The company that best serves its customer will always prevail,” he says.

To truly satisfy audience expectation, Lau explains how StarHub includes “customer effort scores” as part of its KPIs to ensure the company is performing well in the eyes of the consumer.

“It’s not just about how the company performs internally – it’s about always thinking about the customer first,” he says.

At the core of this customer-driven focus is an understanding that connectivity is what drives user behaviour. StarHub keeps a keen eye on technological trends, with Lau admitting they “move faster than ever before” and that it’s important to keep up.

Great content will always succeed

Winradit Kolasastraseni, senior vice-president of innovations at Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, believes “great content will always fly”, but admits consumer behaviour around mobile has dictated changes in how the company delivers its content. Discovery has dabbled with shorter formats and even filming in portrait to adapt to the consumer shift to mobile.

“We’re used to long-form content – to create the same storyline that’s compelling in a three-minute clip is a challenge,” he says.

Kolasastraseni explains how Discovery’s partnership with Adobe shed light on the power of analytics. “It provided us with a truth,” he says, adding that Discovery can now “mine those truths to find relevant insights” that they can offer to producers who then use these to guide their creativity.